Polk Sheriff's Office Debuts Its Mobile App

Do you want to see whether Uncle Cletus made bail, or how about whether that woman you met on that dating website has an active warrant? Yep, there's an app for that.

By JEREMY MAREADYTHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | Do you want to see whether Uncle Cletus made bail, or how about whether that woman you met on that dating website has an active warrant?

Yep, there's an app for that.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office debuted its new free mobile phone app Friday. Users can find it in the app store of their smartphone or iPhone under Polk County Sheriff, or FLPolkSO.

"Our new mobile app is just one more tool, along with our website, Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube, Nixle, and Pinterest, that will help us share information and keep our citizens better informed about what's going on in Polk County," Sheriff Grady Judd said.

The app offers users many helpful functions that include searching for wanted persons, jail book-ins, news alerts, a list of sexual offenders and the ability to report crimes.

And the big bonus, said PCSO spokesman Scott Wilder, is that it didn't cost the Sheriff's Office any money to develop.

"It's free," he said. "We don't pay anything to have the app. It's free to us. It's free to the customers. It's a win-win situation."

Much of the information used by the app was already easily accessible by the department and was a fit with the developer's software, Wilder said.

To make money to fund the app's development, the developer is allowed to sell advertisements on the app. But that does come with restrictions.

The developer, Appriss Inc., is not allowed to sell advertisements that promote anything with alcohol, drug paraphernalia or other things like that, Wilder said.

A quick review of the site hints that the company might target its ad sales toward lawyers and bail bondsmen.

Another benefit of the app includes victim notification, Wilder said. "If someone is in jail, it will notify you when someone gets released."

[ Jeremy Maready can be reached at jeremy.maready@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. ]